Scaffold-support



(Nd Model.)

J. GORMAN.

SGAFFOLD SUPPORT.

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NITED STATES JOSEPH GORMAN, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.

SCAFFOLD-SUPPORT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 259,530, dated June 13, 1882.

Application filed December 14, 1881.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH GORMAN, of Elizabeth, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Scaffold-Supports, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to tripod scaffold-supports which are used by builders and others for supporting a scaffold of boards; and the invention consists in a novel construction of folding brace, hereinafter particularly described and claimed, for connecting the three legs of each support for retainingthem in proper triangular relation.

In the accompanying drawings, Figurel represents two of my improved supports and a beam or plank supported by them. Fig. 2 represents a horizontal section of one of the supports on the plane of the dotted linear to, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a perspective view of a portion of one of the braces. Fig. 4 represents an elevation of one of the supports, taken at right angles to Fig. 1. Figs. 5 and 6 represent views of the folded support. which correspond respectively with Figs. 1 and 4t; and Fig. 7 represents one of the braces detached from other parts and upon a larger scale.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A A and B designate the three legs of which such support is composed. The two legs AA are hinged at a to a pair of jaws or clamps, b b, which are secured together by a bolt, 0, provided with a thumb-nut, c, and these legs may be swung upon their hinges a, so that they will diverge more or less from each other. The third leg, B, is pivoted by the bolt 0, so that it may be swung toward and from the legs A in a plane midway between them. The two clamps b b are recessed upon their adjacent faces and the upper end of the leg B fits between the clamps b b and in these recesses, so that when the two clamps are drawn together they may be tightened on the leg B.

Each of the legs is composed, as here shown, of two sections adapted to slide one upon the other for lowering or raising the support, and these two sections are held in face-to-face contact by collars or slides d, which embrace them, and are fastened one to the upper and the other to the lower section. The two sections are pro (No model.)

vided in their impinging surfaces with holes 6, formed partly in each, or with semicircular notches which, when brought into coincidence with each other, form holes 6, and the two sections are held in fixed relation to each other by a pin or bolt, 6, inserted through one of the metal collars or slides and through a hole, 0. The metal collar or slide thus forms an adequate and rigid support for the pin, and the sections are prevented from being forced apart so as to ride over the pin, as they might were the pin inserted in the wood alone.

Where the pin 6 is inserted through the collar or slide (Z the upper section of the leg need have only one notch, with which any one of the notches in the lower section may be made to coincide.

The legs A AB are connected together near the lower ends of the upper sections by braces G, which hold the legs in proper triangular relation to each other. The braces are composed of two pieces, pivoted together at f and hinged at g to end pieces, g, (see Fig. 7,) which are themselves pivoted to the lower collars or slides, d. The pivoting together of the two sections of the brace O at f and the pivoting of the end pieces, 9, to the legs provide for deflecting the braces upward when the legs are to be adjusted into parallel position with each other, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6; and the hinging of the braces at g to the end pieces or plates, 9, is necessary, because the leg B, when the scaffold is folded, is adjusted into position between the two legs A A. The brace which connects the two legs A A, although shown as hinged at g to plates 9, need not be so hinged.

When the legs are spread out the pivoted ends of the braces G are adjusted downward, and in order to prevent their passing a horizontal position I provide one section of the brace with a stop, h, (see Fig. 3,) which is adapted to enter a notch, h, in the other section and prevent the movement of the brace downward below a horizontal position.

In using these scaffold-supports a beam or timber or a plank, D, set up edgewise, is inserted between the clamps b b of a pair of the supports, as seen in Fig.1, and clamped in position by screwing up the nuts 0. Two or more pairs of these supports are employed to each ordinary length of plank or boards, and

the scaffold is laid directly upon the timbers or beams D. When the supports are to be used no longer the lower sections of the legs are shoved up upon the upper sections and the legs are adjusted into a parallel position, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, in which position they occupy little room.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of the three legs A A B and the braces O, composed of sections pivoted together at f, and having stops h, substantially as specified.

2. The combination, with the legs of a tripod scaffold-support, of the braces 0, each composed of two sections pivoted together, and the end pieces or plates, g, to which the braces are hinged, and which are themselves pivoted to said legs, substantially as specified.

J. GORMAN.

itnesses:

FREDK. HAYNES, E1) MORAN. 

